Galahad: translation
Sir Galahad was one of the most important of the knights in the legendary ROMANCES of King ARTHUR. He is the son of Arthur’s greatest knight, Sir LANCELOT, and Elaine, daughter of King Pelles. Most important, Galahad’s goodness and purity make him chief of the knights who achieve the quest of the HOLY GRAIL. The Grail, originally a mysterious Celtic vessel of myth, had by the 13th century come to be identified with the vessel Christ drank from at the Last Supper, and a perfect Christian knight was needed to be worthy of its quest. Galahad’s name may be derived from the Old Testament place name Gilead, or it may come from an ancient Welsh hero called Gwalhafed. Galahad first appears as a character in the 13thcentury VULGATE CYCLE, specifically in the Queste del Saint Graal (Quest of the Holy Grail), where he is the perfect knight foreordained to achieve the Grail. Lancelot (whose own baptismal name was Galahad), thinking that he is going to the bed of Queen Guenevere, is tricked by King Pelles into sleeping with the king’s daughter, Elaine. Pelles’s questionable behavior stems from his knowledge of the prophecy, first brought to light in the opening romance of the Vulgate Cycle, the Estoire del saint Graal (History of the Holy Grail): Elaine will give birth to the destined Grail knight, who will be of the ninth generation from Nascien, the king baptized by Josephus (son of Joseph of Arimathea, who in legend brought Christianity to Britain). Lancelot, the king knows, is the eighth in line from King Nascien.
If Galahad’s illegitimate birth is a spot on his character, the fact that he remains a virgin his entire life erases that blemish. It also makes him worthy of the Grail. His companions on the Grail quest—Sir Perceval (whom he replaces as the chief Grail knight in literary history) and Sir Bors (Lancelot’s kinsman)—are also renowned for their chastity. Lancelot himself, the greatest of the earthly knights, fails on the quest because of his adultery with the queen.
As the adventure of the Grail begins, Galahad, raised in a nunnery where his aunt is prioress, is knighted by his father and makes his way to Arthur’s court.Here he fulfills the signs that establish his identity as the Grail knight: He sits in the Perilous Seat and, from a stone floating in the river, he pulls a sword reserved for the greatest knight. Galahad is present when the Holy Grail appears to the knights of the Round Table, and all swear to seek it. Galahad obtains a white shield on which a red cross has been painted with the blood of King Evelake (or Mordrains, brother-in-law of Nascien). His adventures all tend to have allegorical significance: One of his earliest challenges, for example, is a battle he undertakes with seven knights who prove to be the Seven Deadly Sins. Later, after joining Bors and Perceval, he acquires the sword of King David himself (from whom he is also descended). Perceval’s sister gives Galahad a belt for the sword made from her own hair, and this pure maiden becomes for Galahad the chaste and holy equivalent of the knight’s lady in a more conventional courtly romance. The sister dies after her pure blood has cured a leprous noblewoman, and Galahad leaves his companions for a while, spending some time traveling with his father, Lancelot. Afterward, he comes upon an abbey where the paralyzed King Mordrains lies—the king has been allowed to live long enough to see the Grail knight, of his own blood, come to fulfill the prophecy. Once healed,Mordrains dies. Ultimately reunited with Bors and Perceval, Galahad makes his way to the Castle Corbenic, where he heals the maimed king and sees the Grail. Informed that he will find the Grail in the country of Sarras, the three Grail knights travel to that land. Although imprisoned upon their arrival, the three knights are fed in their captivity by the Grail, and eventually Galahad becomes king of the country. His reign lasts for only a year, however. At the end of that time, Joseph of Arimathea and the Grail appear to Galahad. After hearing mass, Galahad is able to gaze into the mysteries of the Grail, and after what is described as an ecstatic mystical experience, Galahad desires to enter permanently into heavenly bliss. He prays to be able to die, and is granted his request.
Galahad is the perfect knight, not only in virtue but in his beauty and in his physical prowess as well. No other knight can defeat him in battle or joust. Thomas MALORY keeps the story as told in the Vulgate Cycle essentially unchanged in his 15th-century Le MORTE DARTHUR, and thus it became a part of the English Arthurian tradition. For many more modern writers, like Tennyson or T. H. White, Galahad’s character has been less central to the story—it is difficult to make purity and perfection interesting to modern readers. But Galahad’s legacy remains what it was from the beginning: The ideal culmination of the medieval propensity to combine Christianity with chivalry.
Bibliography
■ Barber, Richard. The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.
■ Lacy, Norris J., general ed. Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation. 5 vols.New York: Garland Publishing, 1993–1996.
■ Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur, or the Hole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table. Edited by Stephen H. A. Shepherd. New York: Norton, 2004.